Studying our full-time two-year Masters in Music Therapy at ARU, Anglia Ruskin University will show you how you can use your music to support the health and well-being of patients and clients.
We’ll introduce you to the most recent, effective music therapy approaches, which you can try out in clinical placements in locations such as schools, hospitals and other community settings.
You’ll be supervised by qualified music therapists, gaining invaluable experience of working in a multidisciplinary team and preparation for your future career.
At ARU, you’ll be taught in our purpose-designed music therapy centre and have access to a wide range of musical instruments, recording equipment and suite of computer music studios.
Our experiential teaching includes developing your improvisation skills, focused work on your first instrument, and using keyboard, single line instrument and voice. You’ll also study music therapy theory and links to practice.
You’ll have the opportunity to enrich your learning by working alongside our MA Dramatherapy students on some shared modules.
There are just 15 places available on our Masters in Music Therapy, so you’ll learn as part of a small group and benefit from valuable placement opportunities. Places are filled in order of acceptance after which, if your application is successful, you will be offered a place on a waiting list.
Aims
Careers
Qualifying as a music therapist will allow you to work in many different areas, including the NHS, hospices, social services, education and the voluntary sector. The NHS Agenda for Change has led to improved career paths for music therapists at levels similar to, or higher than, those of other allied health professions.
You can choose to work privately or on a freelance basis, with a client base including adults and children with learning difficulties and other special needs.
Successfully completing this course will allow you to register with the Health and Care Professions Council – a legal requirement for practising music therapists in the UK.
Modules & assessmentYear one, core modules
- Clinical Placements and Experiential Development 1
- Music Therapy Practical and Clinical Skills
- Music Therapy and Dramatherapy Multidisciplinary Theoretical Studies
Year two, core modules
- Clinical Placements and Experiential Development 2
- MA Therapies Major Project
Assessment
You will show your progress on the course through various methods, including essays, live presentations and practical tasks such as clinical improvisation and composition. You will also undertake self-analysis and reflection in discussion with your personal tutor. Halfway through the course, your progress towards becoming a music therapist will be assessed by an examiner.
Your final piece of written work will be a Major Project involving clinical evaluation, while in the final oral assessment you’ll present a piece of clinical work to two examiners, who will assess your overall clinical skills and readiness to practice.
One of our modules involves dramatherapy, and covers content from our MA Dramatherapy course as well as the MA Music Therapy. On more generic subjects, such as psychiatry, psychoanalytic studies and psychology, you will work with our dramatherapy students, but where techniques and approaches are specific to each profession you will be taught separately.
